Clockwork of Fate
by Ph.Acidity
Summary: Lock, a young blond archineer of Antonia has ventured out into the world to fight a war against the evil clockworks. He is told they are malicious beings devoid of all human emotions and made to kill. However, in a forest far from his seaside village home, he finds something that could change all of that. Hurt/ comfort/ Angst and rated T for things to come.
1. Chapter 1

The battle raged on the long forsaken fields of Warren Forest. Defenses had been build, and a couple destroyed, either form sheer neglect or carelessness. The battle was rough but the source well had survived intact.

Lock now looked out on the landscape. The battle had gone on for some time, and soon all the clockworks that were left would crumble, as the always did, into piles of gear and scrap. Lock thought it a bit funny that after an hour or so of walking the earth and ripping down helpless wall with their bare hands, that the clockworks all just seemed to 'pop' in mass and disintegrate into piles. Of course it saved him the trouble of going and hunting each one down, which Lock knew could be a pain, as the clockwork had tendencies to trap themselves in awkward places. Hmm... perhaps Lock should look anyway...

Lock hopped down off the wall he was so 'gracefully' perched upon, landing a bit heavily on the ground. He checked his immediate area, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing was amiss so he continued out beyond his artfully crafted metal walls, collecting source and anything else that appeared useful as he went. Lock had to commit multiple trips to carry source back to the source well, as the mass clockwork death left so much of it upon the ground. He finished with that relatively quickly and ventured out further into the woods.

Lock hadn't placed any defenses out this far (mostly because they would be hard to maintain) so there was a small chance that a clockwork had gotten lost on its way to the 'wall of death' surrounding the niche of trees the source well was in. Lock referred to it as such because any enemy who approached such wall quickly blasted to pieces by turrets. The only problem with the wall was that by the end of the day it left huge mountains of gears and parts in front of it. For its trouble though, the wall sure did work effectively.

Lock quickly stopped his walking and froze, as he heard the subtle turning of gears that signaled a clockwork. He looked around and saw nothing, but did not move as not seeing a clockwork did not necessarily mean one was not around. Some of them were crafted with deceptive mechanisms, such as invisibility or magical ranged attack. Lock stood still, if there was a clockwork around, it would eventually reveal itself. Sure enough as metal walls rust, a clockwork stumbled out of the trees. Lock immediately got into his battle position, but the clockwork did not attack as it was too preoccupied with swinging wildly at the leaves it had dislodged when it came crashing through the trees. It did not stop until the leaves had settled on the ground. It let out what seemed to be a sigh of relief, and then its eyes settled on Lock and it flinched and jumped back, cowering.

Lock glowered at it. This could be one of its tricks to get him to lower his guard, so he could get a free attack. After several minutes of the clockwork cowering, it made a feeble attempt to crawl away. This caught Lock off guard, but he quickly moved to block it.

"Where do you think you're going?" Lock asked, almost growling.

The clockwork resorted to cowering. Lock dropped his offensive pose, and settled for crossing his arms and frowning at the clockwork. Lock did not move and the clockwork made no further attempts to escape. Lock shook his head and began to walk away.

"... Y-your not going to hurt me?"

Lock quickly turned around. The voice had sounded like it came from the clockwork, but Lock had never heard one speak, or with words at least. Lock walked back over and the clockwork cowered again. Lock stopped walking.

This was an interesting position Lock had found himself in. Here he had a clockwork that did not attack him and not only that, but seemed to be scared of him. Lock could simply kill him, as he was accustomed to doing, or he could... Lock had never though of any other options. Clockworks were just bad, and had to be stopped, to leave one alive was just... Lock sighed, he was probably going to regret this. "C'mon, get up."

The clockwork did not immediately get up. Instead it let out a 'huh'.

"Get up. You're coming with me." The clockwork simply stared at Lock, perhaps wondering what brought this on.

"Why?" It asked, somewhat defiantly.

"Because I'm taking you captive." Lock thought about this, he had never heard of Kingdom Force taking prisoners, but then again, the clockworks did kind of die after a couple hours. Regardless, Lock had decided this was the best course of action.

The clockwork continue to sit, and look at Lock as if it was thinking of something. "Ok." It let out simply, standing up. Lock was surprised, it was easier taking prisoners than he had thought.

"Ok, well um..." Lock scratched his head; he had never really done this before. "Follow me, I guess."

The clockwork began walking towards Lock, and Lock suddenly became concerned for his life, but then he remembered that he had told him to follow him. "what?" The clockwork asked, slightly confused.

Lock shook his head. "Nothing."

Lock led the clockwork back towards his base. Stopping a short distance away from the 'wall of death'. The clockwork was a distance away trailing Lock. Lock wondered where he would put it, he could build walls after all, so Lock could make him a little prison. As the clockwork approached, Lock noticed his turrets move a bit, but he shrugged it off as they did that pretty commonly. He started planning the layout for the wall and heard the clockwork talking to itself. Suddenly he heard what sounded like a gunshot followed by a scream. Lock turned to see the clockwork who was on the ground now, and a cannonball lodged into the ground inches away from it. It did not take long to figure out what happened. Lock sighed, as this meant he had to dismantle his turrets for the time being.

"Go stand over there!" He yelled to the clockwork, who quickly followed his orders. "And don't touch anything!"

Lock sighed again, and painstakingly dismantled the turrets. Lock looked up at the sky and noticed how dark it was getting; he wouldn't have time to build the prison for the clockwork. He looked over at it. It was sitting in the grass, drawing circles in the dirt with a stick. Lock decided to not worry about it and just to prepare for the night.

Lock was starting a fire when the clockwork walked over and sat down. It had its stick, and began drawing circles in the dirt as it was earlier. Lock just started the fire, and sat down on conveniently placed log. Lock glanced over at the source well and the light from the fire bounced off it in an odd manner.

Lock looked at the clockwork, who was silently staring at the fire. Lock began to wonder if this was the best idea. He would have to go to sleep eventually, and the clockwork would be awake, ready to attack him. Lock decided, as a precaution, to fashion some cuffs out of source and tie the clockworks hands together.

The clockwork stared at him for a bit, before going back to staring at the fire. Lock was satisfied in this, and settled down to sleep.

**So to be 100% frank, I haven't played Lock's Quest in ages, so I'm not sure of the accuracy of everything. Though I do remember the clockwork that attempted to 'join' you. I was pretty sad when Isiah (or whatever his name was) killed it. So, now I'm writing a story about it, hooray. Also I started writing this because the sure deficit of stories about Lock's Quest. So, if you enjoyed, please review and hopefully I will be able to update this soon. **


	2. Chapter 2

Lock woke up slowly, arching his back into a stretch to help awaken himself. Lock settled back down and rolled over, but quickly jumped up defensively as he heard the sounds of gears turning. He struck his best defensive 'I'm tired', standing with his eyes half closed, swinging his arms about a bit limply. Lock opened his eyes fully and noticed the clockwork sitting where it had been before he had gone to sleep. It was still hand cuffed but seemed to be making feeble attempts to tend to the fire. The fire, which had grown considerably smaller since last night, burned in a lazily fashion, licking lightly at the sticks and leaves that had been put sloppily upon it.

The clockwork sat, kicking a rock back and forth among its feet.

"What are you doing?" Lock asked, narrowing his eyes slightly at the sunlight.

The clockwork looked up at him from its position on the ground, then returned to kicking the rock about. Lock glared at it. The clockwork attempted a shrug, a gesture Lock had never seen one complete successfully. Lock sighed, and sat down. Lock rolled his head around his neck before standing up and packing up his things.

The clockwork followed suit, standing up and watching Lock. As Lock began to tear down his walls, the clockwork became anxious.

"Mis- Master?" The clockwork tried.

"Excuse me?" Lock snapped. The clockwork cowered. "Don't call me master. My name is Lock." Lock stated glaring slightly. Lock returned to his work, as the clockwork sat silently.

After a few moments, the clockwork stood up again, deciding to try again. "Lock?" The clockwork asked, grabbing Lock's attention. The clockwork held out its hands, asking for the handcuffs to be undone.

Lock obliged. "Don't try anything." Lock said simply, before returning to work. Lock destroyed the last section of wall. He was converting them to dirt. As you couldn't return them to their source form without proper technique and technical assistance, it was better to reduced the walls to dirt to leave as little as a trail as possible.

The clockwork, probably thinking of the implication of turning metal to dirt, spoke again. "Y-you wouldn't do that to me, would you?"

Lock thought about this. Not that he would turn a clockwork to dirt, but about the self perseverance shown by the clockwork. The clockwork normally roamed in large armies, destroying settlements and capturing objectives in an 'at all cost' way, even sacrificing many of their lives to the greater 'good'. All clockwork were supposedly supposed to act in this way, and here sat a clockwork more concerned with itself than the rest.

"No, no I would not." Lock said in the least reassuring way possible. Lock grabbed his bag and slung his large wrench over his shoulders, and began walking. "C'mon," he called behind himself.

The clockwork followed hesitantly.

The two walked for about two miles before stopping outside of a small encampment.

"So here's the deal," Lock said, placing down his things. "I'm going there," Lock pointed to the encampment. "To visit a friend of mine, but you can't go, because... well..."

The clockwork seemed confused. "Why not?"

Lock frowned. "Didn't they teach you this kind of thing in clockwork school or whatever?"

"S-school?"

Lock fumed. "Ok, you stay here. Stay hidden. Don't let anyone find you. I will call for you when I get back. Be within earshot." Lock said, turning and walking away.

The clockwork followed. "B-but I want to go with you." Lock frowned, and the clockwork returned to where it was.

With that settled Lock continued onto the encampment.

Upon getting within range of the camp, Lock was quickly greeted by all the soldier of Kingdom force stationed there. Lock greeted them, as he normally did, and the crowd shortly departed back to where they had been before. Lock asked around a bit before entering a tent.

"Hey, Lock! Long time no see." Isaiah, Lock's archineer friend greeted. Isaiah stood up to hug Lock. Lock accepted, hugging his friend.

"It's good to see you," Lock responded, as they both sat down. "So what's up with you?"

Isaiah frowned a bit. "We've been trying to mount a defense but the clockworks keep breaking through, we're running low on source."

"Well it's not unlimited?" Lock said laughing, trying to lighten the situation.

Isaiah attempted a smile. "Yeah..."

"So what can I do to help?" Lock said as his face became serious.

"Well, right now we are pinned in between to forces of clockworks, one to the east and one to the west. Now, every time, after an attack the clockwork force on the opposing side grows in strength then attacks, so if the force on the east attacks then the force on the west grows in numbers then attacks." Isaiah let out, scratching the back of his neck.

"Why is that?"Lock asked, confused. Lock had never heard of such a strategy before and it's working were not apparent.

"Well, basically... they run through our base to the other side." Isaiah sighed. Lock gave him a very appalled look. "But it's not that bad! They only take like one or two people with them each time."

"How is that not bad? We are losing men by the day." Lock frowned.

"There is more food to go around?" Lock glared at Isaiah. "And the soldiers can afford to wear triple the armour!"

Lock raised his eyebrow questioningly. "Triple? How many men did you start with?"

Isaiah paused. "There are 25 left..."

"I asked how many you started with."

"They're doing fine! The extra rations really keep morale up."

"Answer the question."

"The tents are warmer... and they have more free time..."

"Answer me damn it!"

Isaiah sighed. "There were..."

"Well?" Lock crossed his arms furiously. Isaiah seemed to be leading him on.

"There were... 300."

"300?" Isaiah cringed. Lock began messaging his temples. "This is ridiculous! How can you expect to win anything we you let you and your group get torn up by some strategy drafted up by a halfwit..." Lock stopped midriff and sighed as he noticed Isaiah crying. Lock frowned at him, which only seemed to make it worse.

Lock sighed, and prepped an apology. "Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"No no, you're right. I'm a terrible archineer. I can't do anything..."

"That isn't true!" Lock said, sitting next to Isaiah and rubbing his back. "You're not terrible. You're really good, you just need to try a bit harder and you can do anything." Lock said, poking Isaiah in the stomach, like his uncle always did to him when he cried, making him laugh.

"...Can I have a hug?" Isaiah asked. Lock hugged him. "...And a kiss?"

Lock looked at him to see if he was serious, which Isaiah must have been from his facial expression. "No."

"On the forehead?"

Lock thought about this, and finally gave in to get Isaiah off his back. Lock then stood up and prepared to leave. I have to go, but I'll be back before nightfall. Don't get anymore soldiers killed." Lock said sternly.

Isaiah nodded, his eyes a bit glazed over. Lock walked out of the tent, trying to ignore that fact.

Lock returned to where the clockwork was supposed to be and called out for it a couple of times. It came out of it's hiding place apprehensively.

"Why didn't you come out the first time?" Lock asked.

The clockwork stood silently for a bit before answering. "I did not know that it was you." It let out simply.

Lock sighed. "We need to come up with a name for you."

"A name?"

"Yeah, something to call you, like how I'm called Lock."

"Lock. Lock... Lock... Lock." The clockwork repeated.

Lock frowned a bit. "Ok, you stay out here silently for the night and tomorrow I'll come and get you and if you're good I'll make you a fire or something."

The clockwork nodded and retreated into the bushes.

Lock satisfied with the clockwork's obedience, returned back to the encampment where Isaiah insisted they sleep in the same tent.


End file.
